Singer Jane McDonald talks about the highs – and lows – of stardom.

If there’s one thing singer Jane McDonald hates it’s living out of a suitcase.

“I really do like having my home comforts around me”, she says, “but it means that I’m working… and I’m never going to complain about that!”

“And, I’ll be honest, I really don’t want to change anything about my lifestyle. I am – I admit it – married to my work. I’m a workaholic. So I may not be at home all that often, but let’s face it, I’m doing what I love, so how on earth can I complain?”

Jane McDonald rocketed to stardom an incredible 10 years ago when she was featured in the surprise reality TV hit The Cruise.

“Where on earth has the time gone – it’s skidded past!” she says in amazement.

Despite her daytime TV job on ITV’s Loose Women, her first love is still singing, and she’s on the road again, coming to Oxford’s New Theatre on Sunday, November 22 with a completely new show.

But while professionally Jane is still riding high, her smile hides a lot of past heartaches.

Her marriage to Henrik, the Danish cruise director she met while entertaining on board the liner Galaxy, collapsed a few years ago, and the split was very public.

“I was crushed”, she says quietly. “You can’t imagine the pain. It was perhaps inevitable that we parted – he saw my career going in one direction and I thought it should go in another.

“He was not only my husband, but also my manager, and we had a staff of 13 people looking after me. Thirteen! I ask you! They did everything – but half the time I didn’t know what it was that they were there for. The other, far greater, strain was that Henrik was at home doing all the managing, and I was always out on the road performing.

“When the split came, well, all I can say is that I felt terribly guilty in a strange sort of way. I thought ‘Why did this have to happen to me?’ and ‘This is my fault’. You feel that everyone is looking at you, pointing at you, and thinking ‘She’s a failure!’ That takes a long time to get over, believe me.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom – there is a new man in Jane’s life.

“Well, back when I was 19 I met and dated a lovely man called Eddie Rothe, and we went out for about a year. At that point it was right man, wrong time! But we’ve met again, and yes, we’re dating once more. The only problem is getting our ‘quality time’ together, because he’s now drumming for The Searchers, and we’re both away working so much.

“But we’re both determined to find that mutual ‘special space’ as often as possible – I’ve learned from past mistakes.

“But the truth is I’m also very happy with my own company. I like my house, I like things the way they are and the way I do things. I think you get to a certain age, (I was born in 1963 - why fib about something like that?), and you can be like that. Or some people can, and I’m one of them.

“I also think the fact that I was born in Wakefield, and I still live there, has given me a very good grounding in life. I still shop for my knickers in M&S, and I’ve been going to the same butcher for more years than I care to remember.”

So after all the highs and lows, does she have a word of advice?

“Yes”, laughs Jane, “I do. ‘What’s for you won’t pass you by.’ I was destined to be on that ship when the cameras turned up… it’s as simple as that.”

Jane McDonald appears at the New Theatre, Oxford, on Sunday, November 22. Call the box office on 0844 8471588.